It's Showtime!
Well, sort of.
The new series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty goes back in time to chronicle the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of sports most revered and dominant dynasties
Inspired by Jeff Pearlman’s book, Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers, the series takes a look at a team that defined its era both on and off the court.
During the Lakers reign, from 1979 to 1991, the era was referred to as “Showtime” — a time when the team played an exciting run-and-gun style of basketball, with Magic dominating the passing game as Kareem dropped bucket after bucket. Using their fast break style and elevated shooting skills, the team won five NBA championships
The creative team desperately wanted to call the series Showtime, but since Showtime is an actual pay television service, and not the one airing the series, the moniker for the show became Winning Time. (The series is airing on HBO.)
Adam McKay, an executive producer on the series says that it was ‘pretty, pretty hard’ not to call the series Showtime, but then he sarcastically adds, “initially, we were going to call it NBC and that did not go well.”
“Bravo could have worked,” laughed Max Borenstein, who co-created the series and serves as showrunner.
“And USA was also taken,” added Adrien Brody who plays Lakers coach Pat Riley.
All kidding aside, Borenstein and McKay say that the hardest task in putting the series together was finding just the right onscreen team. “It was the single hardest casting challenge I've ever encountered,” says McKay, with Borenstein adding, “It's obviously hard to cast a Magic Johnson [and] Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Both those guys are such iconic personalities and figures. Kareem is such a mountain and an intellectual and Magic has got movie star charisma. Finding someone who could fit the bill was not easy.”
But the executives were ultimately successful in their quest. They cast Quincy Isaiah as Magic and Solomon Hughes as Kareem.
In the role, Isaiah felt that, “one of the biggest things [is] it's a basketball show so just trying to make sure that any basketball is on point and making sure that that's something I can look back on and be like, ‘I did solid in this way. If nothing else, I looked like him on the court,’” he says with a slight laugh.
Hughes adds, “There was the acting component, and then there was the physical component of trying to become a silhouette of these mountains of men. The advantage I felt like we had in this age of information is YouTube. There's lots of game footage, so just watching just how they move on the court, etc., obviously, that was a big part of this but there was also the freedom of knowing no one can shoot a sky hook like Kareem. So, I'm going to give it my best shot and just leave it there.”
The series doesn’t take place solely on the court, as executive producer Rodney Barnes insists that, ‘it’s about going beyond the game to get to the actual humanity.’
“We don't just show [Magic and Kareem] as basketball players. We show them as human beings,” says Barnes.
While the creators are giving this inside look, not everyone is onboard with the series, including the NBA and the Lakers organization, who are apparently not thrilled about the narrative.
In response to this Borenstein says, “We made this show as fans with a tremendous amount of respect and love for all of these characters, for the NBA, for the Lakers, and I think it shows on screen. I can only imagine how strange it must be to have a movie made about your life or a show made about any aspect of your life, but on our end, this was made as fans with great love and appreciation.”
And, above all else, Borenstein says that ultimate goal in making the series was for the audience, ‘to have fun.’
“It’s a show about showmanship,” he explains, “This is a moment where sports became entertainment. The Lakers, [owner] Jerry Buss, that was his vision, and so finding the most showman-like way of taking the audience into that journey, that was the reason for [this].”
‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’ premieres Sunday, March 6th at 9e/p on HBO.
